"I prefer street circuits in general," he said earlier in the weekend. "Probably any driver prefers street circuits because it feels much more on the edge and much nicer when you pull out a good lap, when you have really been on the limit, touched a few walls, or brushed a few walls, you have a much more rewarding feeling after that."

The ambient temperature at the start of the 90-minute session was 72 degrees Fahrenheit (22 degrees Centigrade) and the track temperature was 108 degrees Fahrenheit (42 degrees Centigrade).

Those tires for the most part were in the pits early in the session as the track was green and dirty, and the drivers were not all that anxious to go out. Hartley proved that by going straight on at Turn 8.

Hamilton laid down an early time of 1:47.563 followed by a 1:46.465.

"This session is all about cleaning the track, laying down some rubber and relearning the circuit," Pirelli tweeted.

More drivers took to the track as the 30-minute mark approached, and Verstappen was the fastest at 1:46.267 and then 1:45.559 on the soft tires.

But a few minutes later he spun and hit the barrier at Turn 8. The car stalled in first gear and he climbed out.

Once again, Vandoorne was the first out as the second part of the session began.

It was still slippery out there, and Hamilton briefly went straight on at Turn 2, and Hartley at Turn 1.

Back on track, Hamilton turned a 1:45.200 on the ultra soft Pirellis. Ricciardo, on the super softs, cut that down to a 1:45.150.

Bottas was now on the ultras and on the move as the clocked a 1:44.242.

Raikkonen wasn't moving at all as the Ferrari mechanics were working on his car. He was out for the rest of the session.

Vettel, with 25 minutes remaining, was down in 20th in the other Ferrari. But he then moved up to 11th.

Both Renault drivers had flat spotted their tires and were also done for the session. They could have used new sets of tires but preferred to save those for the rest of the weekend.

The other drivers were in a similar situation as they did not want to get fresh tires in the waning minutes. So they kept lapping but their times did not improve. An exception was the late-starting Vettel who moved up to ninth. Perez, as well, sneaked in a fast lap at the last minute to jump up to third.

At the end of FP1 the top 10 were: Bottas, Ricciardo, Perez, Hamilton, Ocon, Verstappen, Perez, Alonso, Sirotkin, Gasly and Vettel.